Investing In Legitimate Antique Furniture Can Be A Money Making Venture When You Want To Change Decor

THE PRICES OF ANTIQUE FURNITURE ARE STILL GENERALLY LOWER, COMPARED TO SIMILAR-USE PIECES ON THE CONTEMPORARY MARKET

THE QUALITY OF WORKMANSHIP IS WORTH MEASURING, AGAINST WHAT IS AVAILABLE OF NEW FURNISHINGS TODAY, COMING OFF PRODUCTION LINES

     NOTE: For the past week, I have had a nagging, on again, off again toothache, that defies the rules of fair play. I haven't had a toothache since the mid 1980's, when I got one while canoeing in November, with my friends, up on Algonquin's Rain Lake. Right in the middle of the lake, we got hit with a blast of cold wind, and bazinga, I got a wicked toothache, that I treated with peppermint shnaps, all weekend. It's not like there was a dentist available near our camp site on Little Misty. I've been toothache free for thirty years. This week, the run of good fortune failed me, and I've finally surrendered, that the over-the-counter treatments aren't going to quell the pain for this old geezer. So I'm heading off in a few minutes, to see my new friend, the neighborhood dentist, to see what my options are for the holiday weekend. Either live to fight another day, with some pain killers, or say goodbye to another of my teeth, that has served me well over a long life. So have a good Easter holiday folks, and think about me doing time in the chair.
     I am seriously biased, and have been for most of my life. If you sell new furniture for a living, you probably will hate that a smart ass bloke like me, advocates, when possible, buying antique pieces instead of new. I can offer no apology, for being biased in this fashion, as I find it to be of no serious disadvantage; being thusly tuned to history in this regard. I have been buying and selling antique furniture for four decades, and I've handled some magnificently crafted pieces, that I wish I could have kept for our own abode. This is the down side of being an antique dealer. In order to survive, you have to part with most of the treasures you collect to keep the shop doors open. What I have studied, of these quality pieces, some being from the early 1800's, has been the obvious expert craftsmanship, by the original builder. Pieces that if housed properly, will last another century, to serve future generations. Yet in price comparisons, these finely crafted antique pieces are still competitively priced in today's marketplace. The thing is, of course, some home decorators aren't thrilled with the vintage, or historic look, preferring instead, a more chic, minimalist decor with heavy pieces of furniture and visible clutter. I get it!  We antique lovers like to be immersed in history even in the bedrooms. It's not for everybody, that's for sure. A lot of antique furniture is large, heavy, and darkly finished, and for some settings, they won't work. If you have a Victorian era estate, well, that's different. A condo? Forget the Victorian sideboard, and dining table, which might sit eight.
     While I am confounded these days, by the huge escalation of asking prices, for what I consider common antique and collectables out there, in the malls and shops of Canada, it seems almost preposterous then, to admit, on the other side of the equation, that there are still many bargains in the area of antique and even vintage furnishings. I don't know why this is the case, frankly, but in my travels, shop to shop, venue to venue, I still find that well crafted century old (and greater) tables, buffets, cupboards, chairs, and sideboards of varying length, height, depth and decoration, are still priced very affordably, as compared to parallel items on the market today, that have been produced in substantial value for major department stores. I like the handcrafted furniture I see out there, but I'm not a fan of most new items, but then I'm an antique dealer, and its the way I'm supposed to think; and yes, we even decorate our own home with this mindset on "old is so much better". I've been buying and selling antiques for the past forty years, so I'm kind of imbedded in its inherent culture and history, making it counter productive for me to buy almost anything, other than electronics, marketed as brand new.
     Craftsmanship is a major consideration. When furniture was hand crafted in the centuries past, prior to the factory, production-line output of household furnishings, pieces were made to withstand weather conditions. Why was this important? Furniture had to be built with the highest regard for the weather fluctuations of the country of origin. For example, in England, known for its damp and chilly climate, through a goodly portion of the rolling year, furniture had to be put together, with allowance for expansion of the joints and subsequent contractions due to prevailing humidity. The houses back several centuries, were heated much differently than today, and there would be rooms in large abodes, where there was no heat at all, as they were shut-off for the colder months, to keep the heat concentrated on a smaller area. The furniture had to be well constructed to handle these weather and moisture related fluctuations. A lot of modern era furniture can not handle the rigors of weather extremes, and would, in only a few years in adverse conditions, have cupboard doors and drawers that wouldn't close properly, and cracking where expansion wasn't allowed for, in the area of joints. You could find two hundred year old cupboards, for example, that have held up better than twenty year old parallel pieces, that speedily came off an assembly line. It's not just anecdotal, when the matter of "handcrafted" versus "assembly line" production differences, arrive at the summation, "They don't make them like they used to!" Arguably, it would be highly expensive to handcraft furniture as they did centuries ago, with the same materials, without charging a king's ransom in return; but there are still those artisans who insist on making pieces the so-called, old fashioned way; and they have loyal customers who appreciate attention to even the most minute detail of crafting a table, chair, or cupboard, all by hand.
     My business partner, Suzanne and I, often run these comparisons, for our own information on the state of our industry, when we, for example, come upon a particularly nice table, or sideboard, that dates back to the mid 1800's; from a time when hand crafting was still employed; even to a large degree, in the expanding factory operations for department stores in Canada and the United States. There are lots of pictures of the factory space allocated to furniture manufacturing at the T.Eaton Company, with many workers at their stations, but it still depended on highly skilled wood workers to piece the furnishings together. Many of these early manufactured pieces were made to last, that's for sure, explaining why there are so many examples, having survived into this new century. Not quite as good as the former processes of furniture making, but still adequate examples of furniture that was built to last, more than just one generation of owner. We've come upon highly attractive, well built, and durable furniture, from this period of the early to mid 1800's, that were priced under five hundred dollars, which when compared to parallel new pieces available today, are great values if the home decorators can live with the style they represent. I know I can. The other side of it, of course, is that if you buy a piece with established antique value, as an investment, for a fair price, in comparison to similar furnishings, you won't have to worry about depreciation once out of the store. While I'm not trying to run down the new furniture-building folks out there, and I know how many folks dislike old stuff in any shape or form, it still holds up, that authenticated antiques pieces will hold their value, and potentially increase as an investment, over time. Not the rule, but it does happen. The issue here, is whether or not, you like what antiques represent in appearance and in adaptability to other furnishings in a decorating scheme. It doesn't matter what I think, because I don't live with you. It's a matter of individual taste. To me, I am a stickler for quality, no matter what I'm buying, and there are features I look for, in old furniture, that influences my decision, to buy, or walk away with a sense of subtle admiration. I want longevity with what I purchase, and whenever we have owned new pieces of furniture, such as sofas, I have been hugely disappointed, at how quickly they fell into disrepair, with only moderate use. It's not like the pieces were cheap either. I had a chance to view some of these furniture items, in the comfort of my own home, and I was appalled to find how poorly the pieces had been put together in the first place. I have torn several upholstered chairs and sofas apart, to recycle the fabric, and re-use some of the wood and metal, and it shocked me at how easy it was, with a basic claw hammer, to reduce them to scrap piles in less than an hour's time. If I had gone cheap buying them, I would have felt differently. I remember Andrew coming to us in tears one afternoon, carrying the front padding of our new chesterfield. He had, without much effort, ripped off a whole panel of fabric and padding, on one of the arms, held on by tiny tacks protruding the wood panel it was wrapped around. Some of the tack heads were even bent, and you could have easily pulled the other side off, with nothing more than prying fingers. I would have assumed, for what we paid for the chesterfield, that it would have required a screw driver or crow bar to pry the fronts off. It was the last new chesterfield we purchased.
     Buying antique furniture is, for us, what we appreciate for ambience and our personal appreciation of "old" in a modern time. We are only two people out of millions, when it comes down to what we want to adorn our house; and I'm willing to bet, there are far more folks who prefer new, sleek, refined, space efficient furniture, to what is often cumbersome, hard on the available floor space, and more woodwork than desirable to grace the modern condominium, for example. So I don't expect to commence a revolution in the furniture marketplace, by suggesting we prefer to buy old, based on the quality of builders of the past. I must reiterate, that there are still many modern era woodworkers, making outstanding furniture, one piece at a time. And there are companies producing furniture in a factory setting, that is high quality and durable. We have to be careful of wild generalizations afterall. All antique furniture wasn't of exceptional quality either, as there were cheaper versions of almost everything, and I've also seen many examples of this as well, that can't be lumped under "primitives" just because they appear hastily assembled. There were poor craftsmen in antiquity as well, and it wouldn't be a great antique investment, to bring one of these lesser quality pieces home. But these pieces are pretty obvious for their flaws, if they even survived the toll of ages.
     It pays to research furniture and the early makers, before you make a major purchase. The same goes for new pieces. Do an online search of the manufacturer, to find out if there are any warnings, complaints, or other the other side of the coin, so impressive compliments, about the durability of their furniture.